


A Matter of Life and Death

by LadyAudentium



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-15
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-08-31 02:57:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8560930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAudentium/pseuds/LadyAudentium
Summary: ZevranxOC) When the sound of shattering glass woke me in the middle of the night, the last thing I expected to find was my family's heirloom mirror shattered, and a bleeding, charred, half-dead man splayed on the floor in front of it. So now I have a mirror that's a portal to a different dimension, a mess on an expensive cashmere carpet and a tattooed elf that refuses to take anything seriously. Great.





	

**So here is my shot at a ZevranxOC, I hope you enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age or any of its characters in any way, shape, or form only any original characters that may appear.**

* * *

Pulling his blade free, the assassin was sure that this time, the one sent after him was truly dead. Her golden eyes stared unseeing into the sky above as she lay still in death. She had fought well, the elf was impressed with her effort, but it had ultimately been her arrogance that had been her downfall. The guild had sent her after him with the ceremonial Talon dagger. If she had succeeded in assassinating him, they would have promoted her to the highest ranking position available. Unfortunately for her, this had not been the case. Although, that would make a nice addition to his collection, he would rename it Irony and would put it to good use assassinating the very assassins that were sent after him. Yes, that seemed like a good plan.

The blonde elf was brought back from his musings when a silvery blue light began to emanate from behind a wall of ivy. Curiosity piqued, he pushed away the foliage as he put the dagger into his belt and cleared the way to the source of the light.

It was a mirror and it was covered in blue silver swirls all across its surface. An otherworldly glow surrounded it and a sense of holiness was present in the small little alcove. The ex-Crow gazed at it in awe, never before had he seen anything like this, not in all his travels. Although, the Dalish had once mentioned something about 'Eluvians' and that the elves of old had once used them to travel and speak over great distances. Supposedly they were all destroyed or inactive, however, it appeared that this was not the case. As he reached a hand out to examine its surface a small shockwave carried through the rock at his feet.

Another followed the sound of an explosion and the mirror wobbled ominously back and forth upon the rocky ground. Damn, those must have been small containers of Qunari Blackpowder she had been dropping. How could he have been so foolish? Now it would be his arrogance that would be his downfall. Turning to hightail it out of the ruins he found his escape route crumbling before his eyes. Cursing in every language he knew, the elf turned back to the still glowing mirror.

It was falling to the side as the foundation beneath it started to crumble. Doing something he knew that he would regret later, the elf began running towards it. The glow still emanated eerily from its depths and with the feeling of slipping through cool water he entered the mirror.

* * *

(1st Person POV)

Here I was sleeping peacefully until I was woken up by a bright light suddenly in my bedroom. My heart rate doubled when I felt the light on my face because the first conclusion I jumped to was that someone was in my house! Sitting bolt upright and immediately awake, my attention was drawn to my mirror only to find it was… glowing.

Reaching over to the side table, I turned on the lamp that sat there and then turned back to the object of curiosity. Why was it glowing? It had never done anything like this before. Until this point it had always just been a mirror, it had only done what normal mirrors do and reflected whatever was put in front of it. My brain was having a hard time coming up with reasons as to why it might be doing this. The possibility that it had never been a mirror at all but some sort of T.V or otherwise a spying device sent my stomach down into my ankles. All the times I had been naked or otherwise exposed in that mirror had me blushing furiously.

Grabbing my hoodie off the end of the bed, I quickly pulled it over my head and left the hood up as I cautiously approached the still glowing object. I no longer wanted to refer to it as a mirror since I wasn't quite sure if that is what it in fact was. Swirls of light danced across its wavering surface and I found myself becoming hypnotized by it, unable to look away. Once I was in front of it, I stopped and without even realizing I began to trace some of the patterns. It was very beautiful; I wonder why it had never happened befo—

I didn't get a chance to finish that thought before something, I'm not sure what, but it was heavy came flying through the surface of the glass. My back hit the floor with a heavy thump and whatever was on top of me grunted. That was when I realized it was a _who_ not a _what_. Panic started to set in as I frantically tried to push them off of me. I continued to shove and squirm with all my strength until I felt them finally move off my body only for something cold to be placed on my throat. I stopped all movement after that once I realized it was a knife.

"Where am I?" _he_ demanded in a thick Spanish accent and fear rushed through my entire body when I realized what a vulnerable position I was in with him being between my legs and pinning me to the ground. searching the dark recesses of his hood, I tried to find his eyes but all I could see was black.

"I-I don't know what you mean!" I squeaked as I did my best to avoid the blade at my throat. I didn't dare try to make any sort of move against him, whoever he was, he meant business. A sudden warmth started to drip onto my hip. He wavered in his position above me a moment before he fell to the side with a heavy thump. After a beat of stillness, I decided it was safe to move and I quickly knocked the dagger away from my neck.

Once in the light, I saw that the spot on my hoodie was in fact blood. Upon getting a closer look now that he was no longer backlit, I noticed that there was a quickly spreading red stain on my expensive, _white_ cashmere carpet. Blood. He was bleeding and quite heavily, if I didn't help him, he would die.

As I sat there still half underneath him I could only think one thing,

Goddamn damsel in distress he is…

* * *

Sometime later, whoever this asshole was, was laying on _my_ bed stripped of most of his clothes so I could properly bandage him because apparently he had gotten into some sort of a knife fight and it looked like he lost. Several deep lacerations covered his body, surprisingly though, none of them were in vital areas. Thankfully not only was I qualified to give medical treatment, but I also knew how to stitch up wounds. I suppose medical school wasn't a complete waste of time or money after all…

On the note of his weapons however, I had found all that he was carrying (and boy were there a lot!) and had hidden them in a safe location. The last thing I needed was this psychopath waking up and stabbing me to death, a part of me was even worried about the knives in the kitchen downstairs. I glanced back up at his unconscious form and winced when I once again saw the pink, fuzzy hand cuffs that I'd used to make sure he stayed put until I decided just exactly what to do with him. They had been a gag gift from some of my friends for my 18th birthday and while I wanted to say that I hadn't opened them before now because I didn't want to, it was more of a 'I never had a reason to.'

Now normally the standard procedure with a break and enter would be to call the cops. Although, _normally_ usually meant they entered from somewhere outside the house through a window or a door, not a _mirror_ and these people didn't usually have _pointed ears_. When I'd taken his hood off and revealed two very real and-definitely-not-prosthetics-in-any-way-because-I-checked-and-they-bled, I nearly hyperventilated myself into unconsciousness with him.

I also hated how despite the fact that he had passed out from blood loss, he still looked like he could have been a fashion model. His platinum blonde hair splayed out on the pillow behind his head, his bronze skin completely flawless with the exception of the three black tattooed lines on his left cheek. Don't even get me started on the rest of him, that guy has muscles in places most people don't even have places! Tearing my eyes away from his body before any dirty thoughts could form in my mind about this home intruder, I focused on not falling asleep from my seat in my chair across the room. The bedside lamp remained on in hopes that it would help me, but as the minutes continued to tick by, I realized only too late that I was wrong.

* * *

Waking up I don't think I've ever been as comfortable as I was in that moment. The mattress just seemed to envelop me just right. The sheets were wrapped around me and just exactly the right temperature. There was a warmth at my back which was extremely pleasant and as I snuggled further into it, I felt the sheets around me shift more tightly around me. It was at this time I realized three very important things.

1\. Sheets don't move on their own.

2\. I fell asleep in the chair.

3\. My mysterious home intruder had been restrained.

I woke with a jolt when I came to the sudden realization that the 'blankets' around me were in fact arms and on each wrist was one of the fuzzy handcuffs I had left him in last night and the warmth at my back was the rest of his body. Panicking I attempted to free myself as quickly as possible only for him to groan, tighten his grip and roll further onto my body pinning me into the bed. One of his legs wrapped around mine to stop me from struggling much further much to my discomfort.

"There's nothing I love more than waking up next to a beautiful woman, although usually I do not have to drag her into bed in the middle of the night." He mumbled into my ear and I continued to struggle.

"That's because I didn't want to be in bed with you! Get off me!" I demanded as I continued to squirm and buck until I hit one of his injuries and he grunted with pain as I wriggled as quickly as possible to the edge of the bed. Once out I pulled my unruly mass of black and golden highlighted hair out of my green eyes. "Alright, now I want some answers from you!" he propped himself up on his elbows and gazed at me blearily through half lidded eyes, "First off, who the hell are you? Second, how the fuck did you get into my house? Third, why do you have pointed ears?" I practically screamed everything at him as hysteria started to overcome me. Last night this man broke in and I fell asleep in the chair now this morning I woke up he was spooning me like we were newly weds!

"Yes, I suppose I did neglect that part didn't I? My name is Zevran Arainai. As for how I arrived here," he gestured to my mirror which stood innocently at the end of my bed where it had sat for years now, "I suppose that is the matching Eluvian to the one I was forced to jump through. Although why do you act as if you've never seen an elf before, surely we are not so uncommon that you have never seen one? Oh but how rude of me, surely a lady as striking as yourself has a name to match?" I stared at him unblinking for a good few moments of silence.

"...Odette."

"Ah as I thought! It is as beautiful as Andraste herself!"

"Does anything you ever say make sense?" I whispered to myself as I started to rub circles on my temples to ease the throbbing I could feel starting behind my eyes. Oh god it's too early in the morning for this… "Alright well I need some coffee before I can even begin to try to wrap my mind around this whole situation and you need to stop moving around so much before your wounds open up again. If I have to clean up anymore of your blood, I swear to God I'll let you bleed out next time."

"I suppose this means I owe you my life." I assume it was just to spite me because immediately after he said that, he shifted to the edge of the bed and got up. I hadn't given him any sort of pain medication, so with wounds that fresh there was no way it didn't hurt like absolute hell. I wasn't sure if it was admiration or horror that he managed such a difficult task with barely more than an annoyed grunt when he stood.

"No no no no! You can't be up and about! Didn't you just listen to a word I said? Your wounds are going to reopen!" I began to march around the side of the bed with the intent of putting him back in it until he started to chuckle,

"The application is evident of your skill; I have no doubt they would withstand much more than what I plan to put them through." I stopped dead in my tracks and stared up at him in complete disbelief as he gazed back down at me with golden eyes which took all my words right out of my mouth. As he kept staring at me I found myself becoming nervous under such a strong stare and after only a few seconds, I dropped my gaze and made my way out of the room. Coffee first, understanding shit later.

I tried not to let the fact that I once again had to grab my grey with black and pink trim off the edge of the bed get to me in the sense that he had taken off some of my clothes when he put me in bed with him. I also tried not to think that he had just broken out of the restraints I'd put on him like they were nothing this… _man_ (using the term loosely of course) was strong enough that I wouldn't be able to stop him should he suddenly become not quite so amiable. Or if he becomes _too_ amiable and decides that forcing me to only _sleep_ in a bed is the only activity that's going to take place there…

My bare feet slapped against the hardwood floors as I descended the stairs to where the kitchen was located on the first floor. It was decorated in a pristine white granite that sparkled under the natural light streaming in from the wall that consisted of nothing but windows from floor to ceiling. It looked out onto a lake surrounded by trees and mountains off in the distance. The waterfront was only a few hundred feet from the deck just outside the windows and was privately owned by my family.

Turning to the stainless steel Keurig, I popped in a cup of French Vanilla and then closed the lid and waited for the magic to happen. After a few minutes, my mug was full of steaming coffee and after inhaling the delicious aroma, I took a careful sip to make sure it wasn't too hot before I began to drink in earnest. Almost instantly I could feel my brain start to fully wake up as I leaned against the counter top. The sound of footsteps caught me off guard momentarily before I remembered the patient/intruder/elf who was upstairs and assumed it must be him. I turned my head in the direction of the sound as I took another drink and instantly regretted it.

The coffee in my mouth sprayed all over the counter in front of me as I realized he was still wearing only the bare minimum amount of clothing.

"Put some clothes on!" I practically screamed at him as I not quite so gracefully attempted to wipe the liquid currently dribbling down my chin. Setting the cup down, I desperately searched for something to wipe up my spit take with before I drew too much of his attention. This was also when my eyes landed upon the knife block currently housing a large array of potential weapons. Cleaning up my spill now took the backseat of my priorities when I glanced from him to the knives as I put my body between him and them.

"Oh? Here I assumed that you would not want me to aggravate my injuries further by doing something so trivial. Was I not correct?" he purred in that irritatingly sultry voice and I was tempted to grab one of the knives myself and finish what someone else started.

"Pants would have been nice at least…" I deadpanned as he stood proudly in my kitchen clad in only his underwear grinning and revealing pearly white teeth. At a lack for words, I took another drink from my mug before I began to wonder if I should be offering him something as well, until I once again remembered that he had broken into my house last night. "Alright first things first, now that I'm awake and functioning, I need you to clear some things up. First off, how the hell did you get here? Something about an 'eleven?'"

"You mean an Eluvian? Yes, though I have to admit, I am not quite sure what I did to activate it but it was fortunate I did. I would have very likely died had it not opened." He gestured dramatically with his hands and I could only stare in complete disbelief at his antics, "Of course, I have some questions of my own as well, such as where exactly is _here_? You are dressed in the strangest clothes and I have never seen the like of such extravagant décor or…" he smirked wryly as he held up a wrist with one of the fuzzy handcuffs still firmly around it, "…these." I could feel a blush threaten to overtake my face but thankfully, I was able to repress it.

"…You're in Okanagan Valley, British Columbia just outside of Kelowna, and the handcuffs _were_ to prevent you from going anywhere or doing anything to me, like pulling me into bed in the middle of the night." I glared pointedly at him and his wry grin only widened as he lowered his hand back to his side. "Getting back to the more important matter at hand, you speak like you're not from around here, where are you from?" he grew more serious at this point as the smile faded from his face.

"Surely you jest. No such place exists in Thedas." I could only stare dumbfounded at him. Thedas? He couldn't mean… there had to be some sort of rational explanation for this. He had to be concussed or mentally ill or something to be thinking such things because that was the only reasonable explanation for this situation.

"This is Canada, on the continent of North America, you're not in this 'Thedas.'" I added air quotes around the fictional universe's name to further promote its inexistence. Zevran furrowed his brow in a clear sign of confusion as he once again looked around to take in his unfamiliar surroundings. The realization that he was in fact very far from home dawned on his face as he paled considerably. An unbidden stab of sympathy slashed through my heart, I knew all too well how it feels to lose everything.

"Maybe we should save this for a bit later, after your body's had a chance to recover from your injuries which means you need to get back to bed and rest." For emphasis, I walked around the island and directed him back towards the stairs and by extension my bedroom. He offered little resistance as he took steps in the general direction that I was forcing him to go but they were unintentional, almost a reflex to keep him upright. Sure enough after a couple more steps, I felt his knee buckle and I suddenly was supporting a lot more weight than I was before, "Oof, come on, don't give up on me now 'cause I can't drag you up all those stairs." I wheezed as I used every last bit of my strength to hold him upright.

"My apologies, I suddenly felt… light headed."

"Probably from all your blood loss. I'll check your injuries if you can make it back to the bed where you're going to stay for the rest of the day after this incident."

I could see him nod his head in agreement as we began the laborious journey up to the second floor. We had to stop a couple times so he could let a dizziness spell pass but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and within ten minutes he was lying back in my bed. Like I said I would, I began checking to see if he had reopened any of the wounds I'd had to treat. Sure enough, two of them had popped a couple stitches each and blood had stained the bandages red. These sheets would need to be thrown away after this was done as some of it had gotten on them.

"I'm going to have to restitch these but I don't have anything to numb the area or otherwise prevent you from feeling pain while I do so." I explained one hundred percent expecting him to protest or beg me to knock him out or something, but I was shocked and a little disturbed when he responded with what he did.

"Do not fear for me. I once had a wound closed with a searing hot knife. A few pricks of a needle will feel like a warm spring breeze in comparison." He smiled kindly and I could only stare in slight disbelief at his willingness to go through what was no doubt going to be a very painful procedure. His pain tolerance must be absolutely through the roof if he was able to keep his composure for something like cauterizing a wound with no pain killer whatsoever.

"If you say so…" I mumbled under my breath as I walked back over to where I had put all my meticulously cleaned medical tools. I quickly sanitized my hands before donning a pair of plastic gloves and then brought the tray of bandages, gauze, and of course the needle and thread. The needle itself wasn't like a regular sewing needle, it was curved like a fishing hook so as to go into flesh and then easily out again with as little stress on the tissue as possible. Putting the medical grade thread through the eye, I prepared myself as I positioned myself over the wound and then with steady hands, I pierced his skin.

A shriek of agony erupted from my patient and instinct had me dropping the needle as I drew away. Horrified, I whipped my head to face him as I watched as his expression went from scrunched in horrible pain, to smoother than glass as he smirked devilishly at me.

"No, I'm sorry I could not resist. I'm fine really, do please continue." He _chuckled_ and rage boiled hot in my veins as I glared daggers at him.

"Is that so?" Holding his gaze steadily I brought my hand up to one of his injuries that hadn't reopened and with all the force I could muster in my fingers, I flicked him right on the wound, "How about now?" I hissed through gritted teeth and watched with satisfaction as whatever blood was in his face, drained as his eyes bugged out of his head and he groaned in anguish.

"I suppose I've been better…" was the wheezy reply.

"And are you going to behave now?"

"Yes, yes I promise."

"Good." After that I once again set to work restitching all the places that had broken open. Thankfully, he decided not to make anymore noise, in fact he barely even twitched. I suppose I had gotten across how much I hadn't appreciated his little joke, but after only a few minutes, I had let it go completely. It was rare that I would hold a grudge against someone as it took more energy than I was willing to put into it. So when I was snipping the last piece of thread, I had practically forgotten about it. "There, all done."

"See, that wasn't so bad now was it?" the elf (it still didn't feel right to think that) grinned good naturedly but I could see that the blood still hadn't fully returned to his face and there were small beads of sweat on his forehead. Being sutured up with no pain killers or freezing had taken a lot more out of him that he was obviously wanting to let on so I made no comment.

"Right," I responded half heartedly as I peeled off the gloves protecting me from any diseases that may be in his blood and placed them as well as the sewing needle on the tray and carried them back into the bathroom where I kept the cleaning alcohol. I cleaned my equipment meticulously before any of the blood could dry on it and make cleaning it later more difficult.

After I was finished, I opened up the cabinet above the sink and after a moment of searching I found what I was looking for. Grabbing two small containers of pills and a glass of water, I made my way back to the bed where I set the bottles and the water on the bedside table and took the keys for the handcuffs out of my sweater pocket. "I suppose these are pretty useless now since you broke the chain holding them together." I quipped as I unlocked them from around his wrists. Throwing their pitiful remains into a garbage can, I turned back to the pills and the water. Uncapping them both, I shook out a single white tablet from one and two from the other, "Here, take these. The single pill will help your body increase its red blood cell count and the two other ones are painkillers, they're likely to put you to sleep afterward so don't be alarmed when everything starts to get fuzzy. You'll also want this." After handing him the medication, I then gave him the glass of water.

"How do I know that you're not trying to poison me?" he asked skeptically and I rolled my eyes,

"If I wanted you dead, I would have let you bleed out on my carpet. The real question is, how can I trust you, a man who appeared through a magic mirror armed to the teeth with weapons dressed in leather armor like you were ready to go to a LARP-ing convention!" he opened his mouth to ask not doubt to ask where the majority of his possessions were and I cut him off, "And before you ask, I hid your vast assortment of blades in a safe place where they will stay for the duration of your time here. Now do as you're told for once, and take the goddamn medicine."

Something I said must have kicked his brain into action as he looked at the pills in his hand and back to me. Suddenly not sure if he would know how to take such medicine, I made a motion of putting them in my mouth and then drinking the water. Warily, he copied me as he took a drink of water and then swallowed, I'm assuming he didn't get it all down at once because he took another mouthful of water and continued to drink until the cup was empty.

"You are sure that was water, yes? It tastes like nothing I've ever had before." The pointy-eared man winced as he handed the glass back to me.

"I'm sure, now be a good little patient, and stay in bed this time because if I catch you up and about, I'm going to make you regret it. I promise." With that I got up and after refilling the glass and setting it on the bedside table for him to reach, I gave him one last warning glare before I left the room.

* * *

Sometime later, I found myself looming over the sleeping form of Zevran Arainai with my laptop open on a webpage, comparing his face to the picture that was on my screen. It can't be. This kind of stuff only happens in movies, or books or even badly written fanfiction, (not that I'd ever read any of course…) this can't be happening to me now. Naturally, when I searched his name up on the internet, I hadn't expected to find anything but when results had come back on my inquiry, my stomach had dropped into my ankles. Sure enough laying in my bed, very much a real person and _not_ a video game character was none other than the elven assassin that was featured on my computer.

* * *

**So there's the first chapter!**

**Leave me a comment with your thoughts if you'd like, I'd love to hear them!**


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